The Devils Price. Carole Mortimer

His eyes glittered angrily. ‘Damn it, the man’s been dead for six months, at least let him lay in peace.’

      ‘Why should I, he didn’t let me live in peace!’ she flared. ‘And he did tell Michael that we were once lovers! Your son blandly sat across the table from me at lunchtime and said as much.’

      ‘I don’t believe you.’

      ‘Then what do you believe?’ she demanded furiously. ‘That I would boast to a ten-year-old boy of how I once went to bed with his father? Credit me with a little more compassion than that, Zack. Especially as you returned to his mother after me.’

      His head snapped back. ‘What?’

      ‘Congratulations on your daughter, Zack.’ Her voice was brittle. ‘If she looks anything like her mother I’m sure she’s beautiful.’ She had seen a picture of Joanne once, a beautiful blonde woman, with kind blue eyes.

      ‘Kelly is exactly like Joanne,’ he told her abruptly, seeming lost in thought.

      She would have liked to have said how sorry she was about Joanne’s death, but perhaps in the circumstances it would be in bad taste. ‘What did Michael tell you about our meeting?’

      Zack’s mouth tightened as he stubbed out another cigarette, the ashtray fast filling up. ‘I’d rather not discuss it—–’

      ‘You can’t come in here breathing fire and throwing out accusations without giving me a chance to defend myself,’ she snapped. ‘I have a right to know what Michael told you—or perhaps I should just go and ask him myself?’

      ‘That might be a little difficult,’ Zack lit up another cigarette.

      ‘Why might it? And will you please stop smoking?’ She frowned at his fourth cigarette in twenty minutes.

      His mouth twisted. ‘You always were a little nag about that.’ But he stubbed out the cigarette after smoking only a quarter of it.

      ‘I wasn’t a nag, I just thought it a rather stupid way to kill oneself. But my concern this time was all for myself, the smoke doesn’t do my voice any good!’

      Dark brows rose. ‘Is that your excuse for your earlier show?’

      Her mouth tightened. ‘If you weren’t satisfied I’m sure my agent would be pleased to discuss the termination of my contract with you,’ she was stung into replying, well aware of how she had sounded out on stage tonight.

      ‘You’ll do,’ he dismissed indifferently. ‘That husky quality in your voice always was as sexy as hell. It seems a pity your career hasn’t reached the heights of stardom that you craved so much,’ he derided. ‘Why is that, Cynara?’ He raised mocking brows.

      She shrugged. ‘I guess I’m not good enough for the big-time.’

      ‘But the last I heard you were going to make it happen for you,’ he persisted challengingly. ‘Couldn’t you have brought your way to fame?’

      She had known the insult was coming, had been expecting it, but that didn’t make it any easier to accept when it did come.

      ‘Didn’t my father pay you enough, Cynara?’ he probed hardly.

      She moistened dry lips. ‘I’m sure your father must have told you I didn’t cash that cheque.’

      His laugh was harshly derisive. ‘I know you couldn’t cash the cheque,’ he amended with distaste. ‘My father put a stop on it as soon as you walked out the door with it clutched in your greedy little hand!’

      She should have known Nicholas Buchanan would do something like that, that he wouldn’t take the risk that she just might cash his cheque! But she hadn’t even attempted to do so, by accepting it they all knew she had alienated herself from Zack’s love for good; and that was what she had wanted. It was what Nicholas Buchanan had wanted too, and as usual he had had his way.

      ‘Why didn’t you simply marry a man who could help your career?’ Zack continued to taunt. ‘Someone in the record business, perhaps,’ he scorned.

      ‘If that had been what I had wanted I could have married you!’ she snapped, her eyes flashing darkly. ‘You had enough money to buy me a recording studio!’

      He looked her over with deliberate contempt. ‘I probably would have done too,’ he conceded with self-disgust. ‘I was totally infatuated with you five years ago.’

      Cynara swallowed hard. ‘And I thought it was love.’

      ‘Perhaps it was, for a time,’ he rasped. ‘But knowing the woman you’re in love with, and who supposedly loves you, has accepted money to get out of your life has a way of souring the emotion!’

      It had left him a very embittered man, she could see that. But she didn’t feel she was completely to blame for that. ‘I distinctly remember, on our first evening together, your telling me a temporary relationship was all you were interested in,’ she reminded softly.

      ‘I changed my mind,’ he bit out.

      ‘But I didn’t,’ she stated simply. ‘I didn’t want a husband, rich or otherwise.’

      ‘I soon found that out!’

      ‘I don’t know why you’re so bitter and twisted about it, Zack,’ she dismissed with an indifference she was far from feeling. ‘You must have been reconciled with Joanne soon after that.’

      ‘Yes, I must have been, mustn’t I?’ His mouth twisted. ‘Which brings us back to Michael. From the conversation you had with him he seemed convinced it’s only a matter of time before we resume our affair.’

      ‘I hope you told him how ridiculous that idea was,’ she said dryly.

      He fixed her with an arrogant stare. ‘I am not in the habit of discussing my private life with a ten-year-old!’

      Cynara’s mouth twisted. ‘Even when that ten-year-old can seem like he’s thirty?’

      He gave an acknowledging inclination of his head. ‘Michael is very mature for his age,’ he agreed. ‘Nevertheless, I think you could have refrained from discussing our past—association, with him.’

      ‘I told you, he was the one who introduced the subject,’ she insisted exasperatedly.

      ‘And I told you I don’t believe you,’ Zack rasped.

      ‘Maybe I should just ask Michael to tell you the truth,’ she flared.

      ‘My son is in bed, asleep I hope, at ten o’clock at night,’ he said disparagingly. ‘And he and Kelly return to my mother’s house tomorrow.’

      Her eyes widened. ‘They don’t live with you?’

      His mouth tightened at the unspoken criticism. ‘You think dragging my children from one hotel to another would be a suitably stable life for them? he snapped.

      She shrugged, frowning. ‘They’re with you this time, I just assumed …’

      ‘You assumed wrong,’ he bit out. ‘We are all on our way back from a holiday with Joanne’s mother in Australia, Michael will be returning to his boarding school in a week or so, and Kelly will be cared for by my mother and her nanny.’

      ‘Don’t you miss them?’ The question came out before she could stop herself, biting her lip as he looked at her coldly.

      ‘Your concern for my children is touching, Cynara, considering you’ve been so self-centred in your career you haven’t had time to have any of your own.’ His mouth twisted contemptuously.

      ‘But I can see you wouldn’t want to mar that beautiful body, even temporarily.’ He stood up, instantly dwarfing her. ‘I believe this conversation is over.’

      ‘I believe so too,’ she agreed numbly.

      ‘Don’t